This weeks restaurant Rods Grill in Angels Camp.
Unfortunately this experience left much to be desired.
After a moving experience at the 4th annual Live-On suicide prevention walk-a-thon hubby and I headed to Rods Grill located on Main St across from the Angels Camp Museum. We had heard it was a family style 'greasy spoon' much like a Denny's.
After we were greeted by a sweet young hostess we walked down a carpeted walkway that was so stained and soiled it looked as if a food fight had taken place and had been hastily wiped up, I attempted to slide into my booth. That was no easy task as my bare legs (I was in a dress) stuck to the seat from some unknown sticky substance.
Water, tea and coffee were served quickly and our orders were taken.
The menu was clever with cute car terminology for food items, like lubricants listed all the drinks, etc. The menu boasted some mouthwatering foods. I choose an artichoke omelet, not sure but it sounded delicious, never had one of those before. Hubby chose eggs sunny side up with linguica.
About 30 minutes after our order...seriously, we were about to leave, our plates were delivered. The waitress asked hubby "Hope these eggs look ok." That was a clue. They were pitted and covered with some gelatinous goo that had clearly been sitting under a heat lamp for some time. His linguica seemed to be attempting the make the letter 'C' as it curled from the plate. After eyeballing his plate I became concerned with my own. The cheese that at one time had been covering the top of my omelet had long since melted off and was pooled around the edges. But the potato wedges looked tasty.
Questioning whether either of us should even eat what was placed infront of us the waitress appeared with two more eggs cooked sunny side up. She informed us the owner had cooked them. Hmmm, the owner had made an appearance, this would explain the sudden arrival of people actually scurrying about and working...oh I forgot to mention not one refill of coffee while we waited...not sure about you but most people like refills while they wait, and I find that it is customary, but when in Rome...
So with tummy grumbling we decided to give our meals a try. First few bites of the omelet were ok, nothing special, but certainly not bad. Come bite four I crunched into egg shells. Trying for the glass half full philosophy I was pleased that at least they were using real eggs. I moved onto my potato wedges. As if the eggshell clue in my omelet was not enough, I found more egg shells adorning my potato wedges. Not sure I wanted to eat possible raw eggs, I was done with my meal...and I was still hungry darn it!
Hubby finished all of his meal, all the while grumbling, relinquishing power over the fork to his tummy.
Oh and we had the privilege of paying $24 dollars for this dining experience.
I can only hope this was an isolated experience as I have heard good things about this restaurant, but I, myself, will not be back.
The bright side again? Real eggs! Oh and really fun decor, antique trinkets and pictures.
(My little disclaimer: 'To dine or not to dine' is meant to be a
helpful - and humorous - informational piece only. I receive no monetary
compensation for this column nor do I endorse any one eatery. This
is simply my opinion. My tastes will be different from others and I
readily admit that I have no culinary background, but I am fairly
confident I know when food is cooked correctly or not, whether a drink
is poured well or not and especially whether wait staff is
first-rate or in need of a career change.)
by,
Charity Maness
